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Respighi, Ottorino
Respighi, Ottorino
(b Bologna, 9 July 1879; d Rome, 18 April 1936). Italian composer. Despite the
eclecticism and uneven quality of his output as a whole, the colourful
inventiveness of his most successful works has won them an international
popularity unmatched by any other Italian composer since Puccini.
1. Life.
2. Works.
WORKS
WRITINGS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
JANET WATERHOUSE/JOHN C.G. WATERHOUSE (work­list with POTITO
PEDARRA)
Respighi, Ottorino
1. Life.
The son of a piano teacher, Respighi began to learn the violin and the piano as
a child, before becoming a student (1891–1901) at the Liceo Musicale, Bologna,
where his violin (and viola) studies continued with Federico Sarti. He also
studied composition there with Torchi who, being eminent especially as a
pioneering musicologist, sowed the seeds of his lifelong interest in early music.
The Liceo’s director at that time was Martucci, whose achievements both as an
enricher of Bologna’s musical life and as the leading composer of non­operatic
music in Italy at the turn of the century made a strong impact on the young
Respighi: Martucci taught him composition in his last year as a regular student,
and had a high opinion of his technical competence and promise.
In the winter of 1900–01, and again in 1902–3, Respighi was employed for
several months as an orchestral viola player in Russia, where he had a few, ‘but
for me very important’, lessons from Rimsky­Korsakov that crucially influenced
his orchestration. His brief period of study with Bruch in Berlin in 1902 (not, as
has often been stated, 1908) seems, on the other hand, to have helped him little.
During 1903–8, back in Bologna, he continued to earn his living mainly as an
orchestral player, while winning increasing (though still only local) recognition
as a composer. From 1906 he also became active as a transcriber of music from
the 17th and 18th centuries: his version for voice and orchestra of Monteverdi’s
Lamento d’Arianna gained him his first significant public success outside Italy, in
1908 during another visit to Berlin. That second stay in the German capital
(which lasted nearly a year) widened his musical horizons considerably, with
creative results that can already be discerned in his first full­scale opera, the
initially successful but thereafter long­neglected Semirâma.
Although Respighi was seldom much attracted by the more self­consciously
innovative musical trends of the time, he nevertheless became marginally
involved (in 1910, the year of Semirâma’s première) in a short­lived anti­
establishment pressure­group – the ‘lega dei Cinque’ whose other members
were Pizzetti, Malipiero, Bastianelli and Renzo Bossi. Soon afterwards the first
performance of his justly admired solo cantata Aretusa (1910–11) was given by
the singer Chiarina Fino­Savio, for whom he subsequently wrote many songs
and who for some years was his close friend and confidante. From then onwards
Respighi became more active as a piano­accompanist than as a string player.
Meanwhile he had had intermittent opportunities to teach at the Bologna Liceo
Musicale without, however, gaining a permanent post there: frustration at this
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failure led him reluctantly to apply for posts elsewhere, and in January 1913 he
settled in Rome, having been appointed professor of composition at the Liceo
Musicale di S Cecilia.
Respighi held this post for over a decade, during which he revealed a notable
flair for teaching, as several pupils have testified. In addition to Rieti and
Amfitheatrof, his students included (from 1915) the young Elsa Olivieri
Sangiacomo, a talented composer and singer, who married her teacher in
January 1919 and was the inseparable mainstay of many aspects of his
existence for the remainder of his relatively short life. (She was to survive him by
nearly 60 years, becoming his principal biographer and a tireless fighter for fuller
recognition of his achievement right on into the closing decades of the century.)
By 1913 Rome had become Italy’s most vigorous centre of orchestral concert­
giving, thus providing a stimulus that was soon to bear appropriate fruit in
Fontane di Roma (1915–16). This vivid piece’s huge and well­deserved
success, though not quite immediate, was quickly to transform Respighi’s
reputation (and finances) beyond recognition. Meanwhile in 1915 an
adventurous new colleague had joined him on the staff of the Liceo: after living
in France for many years, Casella had returned to Italy bent on drastically
modernizing the country’s musical life in the light of his recent experiences
abroad. Again Respighi became marginally caught up in the resultant ferment of
new ideas; but he played only a limited part in the activities of Casella’s
controversial Società Italiana di Musica Moderna (1917–19), with whose aims
he had little natural sympathy.
In 1923 Respighi was appointed director of the now state­funded Conservatorio
di S Cecilia (as the former municipal Liceo had become from 1919); but his
administrative duties proved uncongenial and time­consuming, and in 1926 he
resigned so as to have more time to compose. Yet, although he no longer had
any economic need to do so, he continued until 1935 to teach an advanced
class in composition that had been specially created for him under the auspices
of the much older Accademia di S Cecilia. (His successors in this prestigious
new post were to include Pizzetti, Petrassi and Donatoni.) Meanwhile, although
he continued to win his biggest successes with orchestral pieces, he again
became involved in opera­composition, encouraged by his meeting in 1920 with
the writer and journalist Claudio Guastalla (1880–1948) who is now
remembered almost exclusively as the librettist of all Respighi’s later operas.
Guastalla seems also to have exerted a significant influence (for better or worse)
on the conceptions and programmes of some of his non­operatic works.
During his later years Respighi’s now worldwide fame encouraged him to travel
extensively, conducting his music in many countries on both sides of the
Atlantic, accompanying singers – especially (though not only) his wife, who
increasingly replaced Fino­Savio as the leading interpreter of his songs – and
occasionally even appearing as a piano soloist in his own compositions. Before
long his international success brought him substantial rewards at home,
including official favours from the fascist authorities: in 1932 he was honoured
with membership of the Reale Accademia d’Italia. Mussolini’s own admiration
for Respighi’s orchestral works seems to have been genuine and considerable,
and it could be argued that parts of, for example, Pini di Roma (1923–4) and
Feste romane (1928) evoke something of the atavistic pageantry that became
associated with fascist propaganda. Yet Respighi himself remained uninvolved
with politics: unlike some of his main Italian contemporaries he seldom wrote to
the fascist leaders, and his few surviving letters to them are simple and relatively
innocuous. It has been convincingly suggested that ‘Respighi did not attempt to
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ingratiate himself with the regime because he was the one composer of his
generation whom the regime backed without being asked’ (Sachs).
In the field of ‘musical politics’, however, his essentially conservative position
was confirmed when he became a signatory (with Pizzetti, Zandonai and
various lesser figures) of the notorious, widely quoted manifesto which in
December 1932 attacked the more adventurous musical trends of the time and
urged a return to established Italian tradition. Ironically, on this occasion the
unpredictable Mussolini firmly took the side of the modernists. By then
Respighi’s health was declining: a heart murmur had been diagnosed in 1931,
and by 1935 more serious heart problems had set in. He completed no new
original compositions after 1933, and his last opera, Lucrezia, though seemingly
almost finished at his death, is the work of a tired and weakened man.
Respighi, Ottorino
2. Works.
Since 1980 many of Respighi’s hitherto little­known early works have belatedly
become available in print or in recordings, some of them thus being heard for the
very first time. Although the quality of these juvenilia is variable (some are
notable more for technical fluency than for individuality or memorable ideas),
there are striking pieces among them: for example, the previously unperformed
cantata Christus, composed at the age of 19, is a moving and not unoriginal
creative response to the sound world of Perosi’s early oratorios, which were
then just becoming fashionable. Also worthy of attention are the Piano Quintet
and the A minor Piano Concerto, whose evident debt to Martucci does not
preclude signs of fresh thinking in their structural outlines, as well as in
evocative details which in the Concerto sometimes reflect Respighi’s recent
experiences in Russia. The orchestral resourcefulness that he had picked up
from Rimsky­Korsakov – and also ‘conspicuously’ from the music of
Tchaikovsky – can even more clearly be heard in parts of the Suite (originally
Symphony) in E (1903), in which distinctive Respighian phraseology is often
foreshadowed. Here, as in Christus, there are occasional signs that he was
responsive to Gregorian chant long before he met his future wife, despite her oft­
quoted claim that it was she who first induced him to study plainsong
systematically.
Influences from other types of early music, too, are evident in some of his
youthful pieces: the Suite in G pays free, rather romanticized tribute to late
Baroque styles from Corelli to J.S. Bach, and pastiche of 18th­century music
also pervades the long­winded Concerto all’antica (1908), written during
Respighi’s first major burst of activity as a transcriber of compositions from that
period. Meanwhile he was winning his first really lasting successes mainly with
songs, some of which have remained among the most popular he ever wrote.
Although he never became as strongly individual a song composer as his Italian
contemporaries Pizzetti and Malipiero at their best, the charm and expressive
variety of his many works in this field – ranging, in these early years, from the
disarming, child­like freshness of Stornellatrice (1906) to the concentrated,
hypnotic turbulence of In alto mare from the Sei melodie (1906) – has proved
attractive to singers and audiences in many countries.
More adventurously up­to­date elements began to enter Respighi’s music in
some of his works of the years immediately preceding World War I. Pre­eminent
among them is Semirâma (1908–10), whose recent revival in the theatre and on
disc (after over three quarters of a century of total neglect) has proved
considerably more rewarding than had been generally expected. The style is,
admittedly, still somewhat eclectic, with suggestions both of recent French music
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and – not least – of the Strauss of Salome, interacting with more tranditionally
Italian operatic tendencies and with appropriate excursions into the exotic. The
sumptuous orchestral palette of this shamelessly indulgent work prepared the
way for the colouristic virtuosity of better­known pieces to follow.
Soon after the première of Semirâma, Respighi’s solo vocal output entered a
more ambitious phase, in three substantial settings of translations of Shelley.
The vividly picturesque Aretusa, which the composer is said to have regarded
as ‘more his than anything he had previously written’ (E. Respighi, 1954),
directly foreshadows Fontane di Roma in some of its orchestral imagery. Il
tramonto (1914) too – more than the rather prolix La sensitiva (1914–15) –
combines lyricism and restrained dramatic expression in a hauntingly eloquent
single­movement cantata. The accompaniment, though here for strings alone,
contains plentiful signs of Respighi’s flair for imaginative textures, fully justifying
the work’s place among his most widely performed vocal compositions.
However, Respighi’s move to Rome led him, by and large, to devote more of his
energies to purely orchestral music. His first extended orchestral piece of the
Roman years, the huge, unconvincing Sinfonia drammatica (1914), paid turgid
tribute to the more ponderous sides of both Strauss and the Franck tradition, and
has understandably made little headway in the repertory. In Fontane di Roma,
by extreme contrast, influences from, among others, Ravel and the Strauss of the
‘silver rose’ music in Der Rosenkavalier are totally assimilated into a highly
personal, memorably pictorial soundscape: here Respighi showed both a
perfect knowledge of his limitations and a superb command of his talents as an
outstanding musical illustrator.
Fontane di Roma proved to be the most important creative turning­point in
Respighi’s career. Yet the initial delay of its big success prevented its
significance from being recognized at first even by the composer. During 1917–
19 he wavered between contradictory stylistic possibilities: the Violin Sonata in
B minor again harks back to 19th­century forerunners (from Martucci to Franck),
with a risk of academicism in the final passacaglia; whereas a more modern,
even cautiously experimental approach is evident in the capricious
superimposed fourths that pervade the song cycle Deità silvane (1917), and in
the menacing orchestral dissonances that caused the Ballata delle gnomidi
(1919) to be controversial when new, before sinking into near oblivion until quite
recently. Such works show that Respighi did respond to some extent, however
temporarily, to the innovative ideals of Casella and his Società Italiana di
Musica Moderna, which was active in precisely those years.
Meanwhile his creative involvement with music from the past entered a
particularly happy phase, when the first set of Antiche danze ed arie (1917)
combined a typically Respighian colouristic variety with a crisp clarity of sound
that suits the chosen lute pieces surprisingly well. The work soon became
another of his major successes, as did the ballet La boutique fantasque (1918).
Here the themes borrowed from Rossini must themselves take part of the credit
for the sparkling result; but Respighi’s skill in deploying and scoring this material
is also notable, and may even have helped to prepare the way for Stravinsky’s
far more drastic reshaping of borrowed ideas in Pulcinella, which was likewise
the result of a commission from Diaghilev.
Respighi’s most famous works of the 1920s are the several symphonic poems
that followed on, in various ways, from Fontane di Roma, whose international
success was by then going from strength to strength. Pini di Roma and Feste
romane were consciously planned as sequels to Fontane, and became
inseparably linked with it in the public mind and in due course in countless
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recordings. However, these two later ‘Roman’ poems (especially Feste), though
in many ways imaginative, are inclined to let picturesque colourfulness spill over
into a flamboyant garishness that seems aimed primarily at lovers of orchestral
showpieces. One can understand why Mussolini was fond of these works; yet
the unworldly Respighi was probably, in truth, more influenced here by a simple,
child­like delight in the kaleidoscopic riches of a modern orchestra than by the
pageantry of fascism.
Between Pini di Roma and Feste romane, he wrote some more restrained tone
poems on non­Roman subjects, among which the Trittico botticelliano (1927)
stands out as a radiantly evocative little masterpiece for small orchestra.
Imaginative in a different way is the central, and best, movement of the
Impressioni brasiliane (1928), which evokes the Butantan snake farm near São
Paulo with appropriately unsettling squeaks and slithering sounds. Vetrate di
chiesa, though it too is colourful and ostensibly pictorial, consists largely of
orchestral amplifications of the abstract Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriane for
piano (1919–21).
The best known of the overtly abstract compositions whose use of plainsong­like
material followed on from the Tre preludi is the Concerto gregoriano for violin
and orchestra (1921), whose central movement features the familiar Easter
sequence Victimae paschali. Elsewhere in the work the allusions to plainchant
are more fleeting and disguised; the quasi­pastoral result parallels some of the
more calmly modal music of Vaughan Williams. Likewise pervaded by freely
plainsong­like themes are the long and rather diffuse Concerto in modo
misolidio for piano and orchestra (1925), and the more impressive Quartetto
dorico (1924), in which predominantly modal material is put to richly varied uses
within a seemingly rhapsodic yet thematically unified single movement structure.
Meanwhile Respighi continued to make transcriptions of music by composers of
various periods. The later sets of Antiche danze ed arie have won a success
comparable to that of the first set, as, still more, has the winsome Gli uccelli
(1928), freely based on Baroque keyboard pieces depicting birds. On the other
hand few would now defend the outrageously inflated adaptation of
Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1934), in which both Respighi and his regular librettist
Guastalla introduced drastic changes in the work’s substance as well as in its
scoring: their version, like Respighi’s much earlier transcription of the Lamento
d’Arianna, uses a large modern orchestra, and has justly been condemned as
‘an opulent vulgarization of Monteverdi’s original’ (Fortune). Two overtly neo­
Baroque concertante works from Respighi’s last period, the Toccata for piano
and orchestra (1928) and the Concerto a cinque (1933), tend too readily to lapse
into academicism on the one hand and rather pallid Romantic indulgences on
the other. By contrast, perhaps the most perfect embodiment of his freely
‘archaizing’ tendencies is the radiantly charming Lauda per la natività del
Signore (1928–30) – in effect a large Christmas carol in cantata form, pervaded
throughout by suggestions of 16th­century madrigals, Monteverdian arioso, and
other pre­classical music.
During the inter­war period Respighi also became increasingly involved, after
previous discouragements, with opera. La bella dormente nel bosco (1933) –
still, in its small way, arguably his most perfect dramatic work – was launched as
an opera for puppets, and was taken all over the world by Vittorio Podrecca’s
famous Teatro dei Piccoli before being adapted in a new version using child
mimes. The work contains many gently parodistic touches; yet the total effect is
surprisingly unified, so sincere and apt is the composer’s responsiveness to the
details of the story. The far more ambitious Belfagor (1920–22) is dramatically
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and musically uneven, despite some beautiful love music and considerable
harmonic boldness, by Respighi’s standards, in the portrayal of the protagonist
and his infernal origins. In La campana sommersa (1924–7) the composer
responded vividly to the fantasy elements in Hauptmann’s symbolist drama, with
results that are as imaginative as his very best symphonic poems. However, the
music associated with human passions is less distinguished.
The two stage works completed in 1931 are strongly contrasted: the ballet score
Belkis, regina di Saba ranges from picturesque exoticism to raucous banality
and contains some of the most sumptuous instrumentation that Respighi ever
conceived; whereas in Maria egiziaca – originally designed for small­scale,
semi­staged presentation in the concert hall but thereafter performed quite often
in Italian opera houses – he matched Guastalla’s self­consciously archaic
libretto with austerely evocative music in which Gregorian, Renaissance and
Monteverdian influences are evident, alongside others of more recent origin. La
fiamma (1931–3), Respighi’s last and most frequently performed large­scale
opera, reverts in some ways to quasi­Verdian methods, alongside archaic and
exotic elements designed to evoke the Byzantine setting. Monteverdi­like
archaisms reappear here and there in the unfinished Lucrezia, especially in the
narrating part of ‘La voce’. However, in this disappointing short opera the
composer’s lifelong eclecticism became a liability rather than the asset it could
sometimes be. The work’s orchestration was completed by his widow, assisted
by his pupil Ennio Porrino.
Respighi, Ottorino
WORKS
Catalogue:P. Pedarra: ‘Catalogo delle composizioni di Ottorini Respighi’, Ottorini Respighi, ed. G.
Rostivolla (Turin, 1985), 327–404 [P]
operas
P
55
76
94
100
134
137
152
170
175
176
Re Enzo (comic op, 3, A. Donini), 1904–5, Bologna, Teatro del Corso, 12
March 1905, only few nos. pubd
Al mulino (2, Donini), 1908, inc., unperf., unpubd
Semirâma (poema tragico, 3, A. Cerè), 1908–10, Bologna, Comunale, 20 Nov
1910 [incl. rev. version of Notturno, orch, P74; Duet, P94a, S, T, orch, 1911–12
[from Act 1 of op] Danza dell’aurora, P94b added 1912]
Marie Victoire (4, E. Guiraud), 1912–14, unperf.
La bella addormentata nel bosco (fiaba musicale, 3, G. Bistolfi, after C.
Perrault), 1916–21, unpubd; rev. as La bella dormente nel bosco, P176, 1933
Belfagor (commedia lirica, prol., 2, epilogue, C. Guastalla, after E.L. Morselli),
1920–22, Milan, Scala, 26 April 1923
La campana sommersa (4, Guastalla, after G. Hauptmann: Die versunkene
Glocke), 1924–7, Hamburg, Stadt, 18 Nov 1927
Maria egiziaca (mistero, 3 episodes, Guastalla, after D. Cavalca: Le vite dei
santi padri), 1929–31, semi­staged New York, Carnegie Hall, 16 March 1932;
staged Venice, Goldoni, 10 Aug 1932
La fiamma (melodramma, 3, Guastalla, after H. Wiers­Jenssen: Anne
Pedersdotter), 1931–3, Rome, Opera, 23 Jan 1934
La bella dormente nel bosco (fiaba musicale, 3, Bistolfi, after Perrault), 1933
[rev. version of La bella addormentata nel bosco, P134], marionette version,
Rome, Piccoli di Podrecca, Palazzo Odescalchi, 13 April 1922; version with
child mimes, Turin, Torino, 9 April 1934; 3rd version, rev. G.L. Tocchi and E.
Respighi, RAI, 13 June 1967
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180 Lucrezia (1, Guastalla, after W. Shakespeare: The Rape of Lucrece and Livy:
Ab urbe condita libri), 1935; orch completed E. Respighi and E. Porrino (1936),
Milan, Scala, 24 Feb 1937
ballets
120
128
129
129a
129b
129c
129d
129e
130
130a
171
La boutique fantasque (choreog. L. Massine), 1918, London, Alhambra, 5
June 1919 [after Rossini]
Sèvres de la vieille France (I. Leonidov, choreog. M.A. de Camargò), 1920,
Rome, Costanzi, spring 1920 [based on French 17th­ and 18th­century
themes]
La pentola magica (fiaba russa, choreog. Leonidov), 1920, Rome, Costanzi,
20 Nov 1920 [based on Russian folk melodies]
La pirrica (choreog. Leonidov), 1920, Rome, Costanzi, 20 Nov 1920, unpubd,
?lost [after Chopin]
Fantasia indiana (choreog. Leonidov), 1920, Rome, Costanzi, 20 Nov 1920,
unpubd, ?lost [after Glinka, Rimsky­Korsakov]
Canzoni arabe (choreog. Leonidov), 1920, Rome, Costanzi, 27 Nov 1920,
unpubd, ?lost [after Borodin, Rimsky­Korsakov]
L’autunno (choreog. Leonidov), 1920, Rome, Costanzi, Nov 1920, unpubd, ?
lost [after Tchaikovsky]
Fiori di mandorlo (choreog. Leonidov), 1920, Rome, Costanzi, Nov 1920,
unpubd, ?lost
Scherzo veneziano (Le astuzie di Colombina) (choreog. Leonidov), 1920,
Rome, Costanzi, 27 Nov 1920, unpubd
Impromptu (choreog. Massine), 1921, unpubd, ?lost [after Chopin]
Belkis, regina di Saba (Guastalla), 1931, Milan, Scala, 23 Jan 1932 [incl.
Danza dell’aurora from op Semirâma]
orchestral
1, 2 Unpubd juvenilia, 1893–4
28
Variazioni sinfoniche, 1900
30
Preludio, corale e fuga, 1901
32
Aria, G, str, org, 1901; versions incl. in Suite no.2, P57a; Suite, G, P58; chbr
work 6 pezzi, P31
34
Symphony, E, 1901, unpubd, rev. 1903 as Suite, E, P51, unpubd
36
Leggenda, vn, orch, 1902, arr. as no.3 of 6 pezzi, P31, vn, pf
38
Berceuse, str, 1902, unpubd, arr. as no.1 of 6 pezzi, P31, vn, pf
40
Piano Concerto, a, 1901
40a Cello Concerto, E, 1902, unpubd, partly lost, central movt rev. as Adagio con
variazioni, P133
41
Suite, str, 1902
45
Humoreske, vn, orch, 1903
47
Minuetto, str, 1903, unpubd [arr. as/based on no.4 of 6 pezzi, P44, pf]
48
Di sera, 2 ob, str, 1903
49
Violin Concerto, A, 1903, inc., 1st and 2nd movts pubd 1993
50
Fantasia slava, G, pf, orch, 1903
51
Suite, E, 1903, unpubd [version of Sym., E, P34]
54
Serenata, small orch, 1904
57
Suite, str, fl, triangle, 1905, unpubd
57a Suite no.2, str, fl, sistro, 1905 [incl. version of Aria, P32 and Intermezzo­
Serenata from op Re Enzo, P55; versions of some nos. incl. in 6 pezzi, P31,
vn, pf, and 6 pezzi, P44, pf; Suite assembled 1993 by P. Pedarra]
58
Suite, G, str, org, 1901–5 [incl. version of Aria, P32]
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59
74
75
94b
Burlesca, 1906
Notturno, 1904–5, rev. and incl. in op Semirâma
Concerto all’antica, vn, orch, 1908
Danza dell’aurora, 1912, incl. in op Semirâma, P94 and ballet Belkis, regina
di Saba, P171
99
Ouverture carnevalesca, 1913, unpubd
102 Sinfonia drammatica, 1914
106 Fontane di Roma, 1915–16, arr. pf 4 hands, 1918
109 Antiche danze et arie per liuto, suite no.1, small orch, 1917, arr. 2 pf, 1918
[from 16th­century lute pieces]
120a La boutique fantasque, suite, 1918 [based on ballet, P120]
124 Ballata delle gnomidi, 1919
133 Adagio con variazioni, vc, orch, 1921 [rev. of 2nd movt of Vc Conc., P40a]
135 Concerto gregoriano, vn, orch, 1921
138 Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, suite no.2, orch, 1923, arr. 2 pf, 1923 [from
16th­ and 17th­century lute pieces]
140 Belfagor, ov., 1924 [based on op, P137]
141 Pini di Roma, 1923–4, arr. pf 4 hands, 1924
145 Concerto in modo misolidio, pf, orch, 1925
146 Poema autunnale, vn, orch, 1925
148 Rossiniana, suite, 1925 [after Rossini]
150 Vetrate di chiesa, 1925–6 [first 3 movts based on 3 preludi sopra melodie
gregoriane, P131, pf]
151 Trittico botticelliano, small orch, 1927
153 Impressioni brasiliane, 1928
154 Gli uccelli, small orch, 1928, perf. as ballet, 1933 [arr. Baroque kbd pieces]
156 Toccata, pf, orch, 1928
157 Feste romane, 1928 [first section based on unfinished Nerone, orch, 1926]
169 Metamorphoseon modi XII, 1930
172 Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, suite no.3, str, 1931 [version of str qt, P172a]
173 Huntingtower, large wind band (1932)
174 Concerto a cinque, ob, tpt, vn, db, pf, str, 1933
177 Belkis, regina di Saba, suite, 1934 [based on ballet, P171]
vocal with orchestra or ensemble
1b
17
24
60
94a
95
99a
101
104
105
117
119
Sentite? Tintinnan le mandrie (anon.), S, chorus, orch, 1893–4, unpubd
Salutazione angelica (E. Panzacchi), S, chorus, orch, 1897–8, unpubd
Christus (cant., Respighi), T, Bar, male chorus, orch, 1898–9
I persiani (cant., Aeschylus), Mez, T, Bar, male chorus, orch, 1900, rev. as 29,
1906
Duet from Semirâma (Cerè), S, T, orch, 1911–12 [from Act I of op]
Aretusa (P. Shelley), Mez, orch, 1910–11
Tre liriche (A. Negri, V.A. Pompilj), Mez, orch, 1913 [orch of songs Notte, P55a,
Nebbie, P64, Pioggia, P90]
Il tramonto (Shelley), Mez, str qt/str orch, 1914
La sensitiva (Shelley), Mez, orch, 1914–15
Canzone e danza sopra temi popolari russi, chorus, orch, 1915, unpubd
Ai lancieri ‘Vittorio Emmanuele II’ (hymn, Bevilacqua), chorus, tpts, 1918,
unpubd
Il flauto di Pane, Mez, small orch, 1918, unpubd, rev. version incl. in op La
campana sommersa, P152
136 La primavera (C. Zarian), S, T, Bar, B, chorus, orch, 1918–22
147 Deità silvane (A. Rubino), S/T, 15 insts, 1917–25 [arr. of song, P107]
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Respighi, Ottorino
166 Lauda per la natività del Signore (attrib. J. da Todi), S, Mez, T, chorus, pic, fl,
ob, eng hn, 2 bn, triangle, pf 4 hands, 1928–30
170 Maria egiziaca (trittico da concerto, Guastalla), 1929–31 [after op]
songs
8
9
11
12
39
52
55a
L’ultima ebbrezza (A. Negri), S, 1896
Lagrime (Negri), T, 1896
Notturno (Negri), T, 1896
Tantobella (Negri), T, 1897
Miranda (A. Fogazzaro), 1v, pf, 1902, unpubd
Storia breve (Negri), Mez, pf, 1904
Notte (Negri), Mez, Bar, pf, 1905, unpubd, rev. version incl. in 6 liriche, P97,
orchd version in 3 liriche, P99a
63
Luce (Negri), Mez, pf, 1906
64
Nebbie (Negri), 1v, pf (1906), orch version incl. in 3 liriche, P99a
65
Nevicata (Negri), 1v, pf (1906)
66
Contrasto (C. Zangarini), 1v, pf (1906)
67
Invito alla danza (Zangarini), 1v, pf (1906), orchd
68
Scherzo (Zangarini), 1v, pf (1906)
69
Stornellatrice (Zangarini, A. Donini), 1v, pf (1906), orchd
70
Stornello dall’opera Re Enzo (Donini), 1v/2v, pf (1906) [from op, P55]
71
Cinque canti all’antica, 1v, pf, ?1906 (1910) [incl. Canzone di Re Enzo from
op Re Enzo, P55]
89
Sei melodie, 1v, pf, 1906 [incl. In alto mare (E. Panzacchi), Mattinata (G.
D’Annunzio)]
90
Sei liriche, series no.1, 1v, pf, 1909 [incl. O falce di luna (D’Annunzio), Pioggia
(Pompilj)]
96
E se un giorno tornasse … (Pompilj), Mez, pf, 1911
97
Sei liriche, series no.2, 1v, pf (1912) [incl. arr. of song Notte, P55a]
98a Vous êtiez sur mon coeur (E. Guiraud), Mez/Bar, pf, 1912–13, unpubd
103 Quattro rispetti toscani (A. Birga), 1v, pf, 1915, no.2 also orchd
107 Deità silvane (A. Rubino), S/T, pf, 1917, arr. as P147, S/T, 15 insts, 1925
108 Cinque liriche, 1v, pf, 1917 [incl. I tempi assai lontani, Canto funebre
(Shelley); La fine (R. Tagore) (1918), orchd]
108a La musica (Shelley), Mez, pf, 1917, unpubd
121 La donna sul sarcofago (D’Annunzio), Mez, pf, 1919
122 La statua (D’Annunzio), Mez, pf, 1919
123 Due liriche (anon., M. de Fersen), Mez, pf, 1919, unpubd
125 Quattro liriche (D’Annunzio: Poema paradisiaco), Mez, pf, 1920
132 Quatro liriche su parole di poeti armeni (C. Zarian, Nersès), Mez, pf, 1921
155 Canzone sarda, 1v, pf, 1928, unpubd
161 Vocalizzo, S/T, pf, incl. in Vocalizzi nello stile moderno (1930)
162 Vocalizzo, Mez/Bar, pf, incl. in Vocalizzi nello stile moderno (1930)
163 Vocalizzo, A/B, pf, incl. in Vocalizzi nello stile moderno (1930)
164
165
La funtanelle (Abruzzi folksong), 1v, pf, 1930, unpubd
2 liriche, 1v, pf, ?1930, unpubd
chamber
some works also orchestrated
15
15a
Sonata, d, vn, pf, 1897, unpubd
Sarabanda, vn, pf, 1897, unpubd
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Respighi, Ottorino
15b
18
20
21
27
31
Giga, vn, pf, 1897, unpubd
String Quartet no.1, D, 1897–8, unpubd
String Quartet no.2, B , 1897–8, unpubd
Wind Quintet, g, 1897–8
Double String Quartet, d, 1900
Sei pezzi, vn, pf, 1902–5 [incl. versions of orch works Aria, P32; Leggenda,
P36; Berceuse, P38; Suite no.2, P57a; Suite, G, P58; pf work, P44]
33a String Quartet, B , 1901, unpubd, inc.
35
Piano Quintet, f, 1902
53
String Quartet no.3, D, 1904
61
Quartet, D, quinton, va d’amore, b viol, va da basso, 1906, unpubd
62
Cinque pezzi, vn, pf (1906)
91
String Quartet, d, 1909
110 Sonata, b, vn, pf, 1917
144 Quartetto dorico, str qt, 1924
168 Suite della tabacchiera, 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 bn, pf 4 hands, 1930
172a Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, str qt, 1931, arr. str orch, P172 [3 movts based
on pf work, P114]
191 Scherzo, str qt, unpubd
keyboard
4a,b
4c,6,7,10
13
16
22
23
37
43
44
56
92
105a
105b,c
114
115
116
131
139
142
149
Sonata, a, pf, 1895–6, unpubd, 2 versions
Early short pieces, 1895–6, unpubd
Gösdemlan (Gusci di melone), pf 4 hands, 1897, unpubd
Sonata, f, pf, 1897–8
Suite, pf, 1898, unpubd
Preludio, pf, 1898, unpubd
Walzer, c , pf 4 hands, 1902, unpubd
Suite, pf, 1903, unpubd, inc.
Sei pezzi, pf, 1903–5, 2 nos. arr. vn, pf, incl. in 6 pezzi, P31 [no.4 arr.
as/based on orch work Minuetto, P47; Intermezzo dell’opera Re Enzo arr.
of Intermezzo­Serenata from op Re Enzo, also orchd as part of Suite no.2,
P57a]
Preludio, org, 1905, unpubd
Tre pezzi, org, 1910
Preludio, org, 1916, unpubd
Toccata, Fuga, pf, 1916, unpubd
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, pf, 1917–18, 3 nos. arr. as part of str qt,
P172a, arr. str orch as suite no.3, P172 [from 16th­ and 17th­century lute
pieces]
Fontane di Roma, pf 4 hands, 1918 [arr. of orch work, P106]
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, 2 pf, 1918 [arr. of orch work, suite no.1,
P109]
Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriane, 1919–21, arr. as part of orch work
Vetrate di chiesa, P150
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, 2 pf, 1923 [arr. of orch work, suite no.2,
P138]
Pini di Roma, pf 4 hands, 1924 [arr. of orch work, P141]
Sei pezzi per bambini, pf 4 hands (1926)
transcriptions and realizations
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Respighi, Ottorino
19
72–3
77–84,86
85
87
88
93
98,113a
98c
111–13
113c
118
126
127
139a
139b
143
158
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Moszkovski: Cortège, str qt,
1898, unpubd
Ariosti: 2 sonatas, va
d’amore, hpd, 1906, unpubd
[realizations]
Locatelli, Porpora, Tartini,
Valentini, Veracini, Vivaldi:
Sonatas, vn, pf, 1908–9
[Tartini: Pastorale also arr.
vn, str]
J.S. Bach: Sonata, E, vn,
str, org, 1908–9, also arr.
vn, org
T.A. Vitali (attrib.): Ciacona,
vn, str, org, 1908–9
Monteverdi: Lamento
d’Arianna, Mez, large orch,
1908
J.S. Bach: aria from St
Matthew Passion, a, vn, pf
B. Pasquini, B. Marcello,
Galuppi, anon.: Antiche
cantate d’amore, 1v, pf,
1912 [Pasquini and
Marcello also arr. 1v, orch,
1917 unpubd]
J.S. Bach: Concerto, f, pf,
orch, 1912–13, unpubd, lost
Frescobaldi: org works, arr.
pf (1918)
Pergolesi: Se tu m’ami
(arietta), 1v, ob, str, 1918,
unpubd
J.S. Bach: Chorale, vn, str,
1918, unpubd, rev. as part
of P167
Cimarosa: Le astuzie
femminili, 1920, Paris,
Opéra, 27 May 1920 [for
Diaghilev]; pubd version ed.
E. Respighi and M. Rossi
Paisiello: La serva padrona,
1920, ?unperf, lost [for
Diaghilev]
Boccherini: Concerto, D, vc,
small orch, 1923–4
Goltermann: Concerto, a,
vc, orch, 1923–4, unpubd.,
?lost
Quattro arie scozzesi
(Scottish folksongs), 1v, pf,
1924
J.S. Bach: Prelude and
Fugue, D, large orch, 1929
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Respighi, Ottorino
159
160
167
178
179
195–6
J.S. Bach: Passacaglia, c,
orch, 1930
Rachmaninov: 5 études­
tableaux, orch, 1930
[selected from opp.33 and
39]
J.S. Bach: 3 chorales, orch,
1930
Monteverdi: Orfeo, large
orch, 1934, Milan, Scala, 16
March 1935 [realization]
B. Marcello: Didone, cant.,
S, small orch (1938)
Works by Corelli, Grieg,
unpubd
MSS in A­Wn, I­Bc, Mr, Vgc; a few in I­PAt, Sac, USSR­
Mcm, US­NYpm, Wc, private collections
Principal publishers: Benjamin & Rather, Bongiovanni,
Bote & Bock, Ricordi, Sonzogno, Universal
Respighi, Ottorino
WRITINGS
with S.A. Luciani: Orpheus (Florence, 1925) [elementary textbook]
Respighi, Ottorino
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GroveO (J.C.G. Waterhouse)
Thompson11
monographs, catalogues and collections of essays
S.A. Luciani: ‘Belfagor’ di Ottorino Respighi (Milan, 1923)
R. de Rensis: Ottorino Respighi (Turin, 1935; Fr. trans., enlarged 1957)
E. Respighi: Ottorino Respighi: dati biografici ordinati (Milan, 1954; Eng. trans.,
abridged, 1962)
E. Desderi and others: Ricordo di Ottorino Respighi (Bologna, 1961)
M. Rinaldi: ‘Ottorino Respighi’, Musica d’oggi, new ser., iv (1961), 146–57
R. Rossellini: ‘Il teatro di Respighi’, ibid., 158–61
C. Rostand: ‘Ottorino Respighi e la musica strumentale’, ibid., 162–4
Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936): catalogo delle opere (Milan, 1965; repr. 1986
with new introduction) [Ricordi catalogue]
S. Martinotti: Musica moderna, i (1967), 193–208 [Respighi number]
A. Musat­Popovici: Respighi (Bucharest, 1975)
L. Bragaglia and E. Respighi: Il teatro di Respighi (Rome, 1978)
M. Modugno: Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936): discografia (Rome, 1979); rev. in
Ottorino Respighi, ed. G. Rostirolla (Turin and Rome, 1985), 407–40
An International Respighi Discography, ed. Adriano (Zürich, 1980)
G. Rostirolla, ed.: Ottorino Respighi (Turin and Rome, 1985) [incl. P. Pedarra,
list of works, 327–404]
A. Cantù and others: Respighi compositore (Turin, 1985) [incl. list of
autographed MSS]
P. Alverà: Respighi (New York, 1986)
P. Pedarra and Q. Principe: O. Respighi (Milan, 1990) [pamphlet]
P. Pedarra: Il pianoforte nella produzione giovanile di Respighi (Milan, 1995)
[incl. thematic catalogue, discography and bibliography]
file:///home/hugo/Dropbox/Material%20Didatico/New%20Grove/Entries/S47335.htm
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Respighi, Ottorino
Respighi giovanile: Milan 1993 [Civiltà musicale, nos.23–4 (1996)]
P. Pedarra: Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Ottorino Respighi (forthcoming)
specific works
I. Pizzetti: ‘Semirama di Ottorino Respighi al Comunale di Bologna’, Il secolo
(21 Nov 1910)
G. Bastianelli: ‘Le nuove tendenze dell’opera italiana: Semirama di Ottorino
Respighi’, Musicisti d’oggi e di ieri (Milan, 1914), 48–58
A. Lualdi: ‘“Belfagor” di Ottorino Respighi alla Scala’, Serate musicali (Milan,
1928), 34–43
M. Rinaldi: ‘“La fiamma” di Ottorino Respighi’, Rassegna dorica, v (1933–4),
100–105
G.F. Ghedini: ‘Nuove composizioni di Ottorino Respighi: Concerto a cinque’,
Musica d’oggi, xvi (1934), 369–71; repr. in P. Pedarra and Q. Principe: O.
Respighi (Milan, 1990), 23–7
A. Gasco: Da Cimarosa a Strawinsky (Rome, 1939), 243–57 [incl. essays on La
campana sommersa, La fiamma and Feste romane]
F. Abbiati: ‘Il teatro di Ottorino Respighi’, Ricordiana, new ser., ii (1956), 279–83
R. Mariani: Verismo in musica e altri studi (Florence, 1976), 207–16 [essays on
La campana sommersa, Maria egiziaca and Lucrezia]
P. Caputo: ‘Il teatro musicale di Ottorino Respighi’, Rassegna musicale Curci,
xxxii/2 (1979), 55–60
‘Il teatro per musica di Ottorino Respighi’, Vita italiana: documenti e informazioni
[Rome], xxix/4 (1979), 117–29
L. Bragaglia: ‘Respighi’s Theatre and its Interpreters’, Italy: Documents and
Notes, xxix/10 (1980), 37–53
S. Ferré: ‘The Organ Works of Ottorino Respighi’, The Diapason, lxxv (1984),
no.1, pp.10–11; no.2, pp.6–7; no.3, pp.8–9
L. Gherardi: ‘Atteggiamenti medievalistici nell’opera di Ottorino Respighi: la
Lauda per la natività del Signore’, Rivista internationale di musica sacra, vii
(1986), 231–40
A. Piovano: ‘Aspetti morfologici e caratteri linguistici del Concerto a cinque di
Ottorino Respighi’, NRMI, xix (1987), 67–83
R.C. Lakeway and R.C. White: Italian Art Song (Bloomington, IN, 1989), 57–
120
M. Gradara: ‘Un inedito “Concerto per violoncello” di Ottorino Respighi’, NRMI,
xxvii (1993), 595–603; repr. in Civiltà musicale, xi/23–4 (1996), 163–73
other studies
S.A. Luciani: ‘Ottorino Respighi: note biografiche e bibliografia’, Bollettino
bibliografico musicale, i/3 (1926), 3–10
G. Sallustio: ‘Respighi’, Revista de música, iii/1 (1929), 1–15
M. Saint­Cyr: ‘Ottorino Respighi’, Rassegna dorica, iii (1931–2), 22–6; repr. in
M. Saint­Cyr: Musicisti italiani contemporanei (Rome, 1932), 27–37
M. Mila: ‘Problemi di gusto e d’arte in Ottorino Respighi’, RaM, vi (1933), 95–
103; repr. as ‘Un artista di transizione: Ottorino Respighi’, Cent’anni di
musica moderna (Milan, 1944, 2/1981), 145–53; repr. in G Rostirolla:
Ottorino Respighi (Turin and Rome, 1985), 97–104
A. Capri: ‘L’arte di Ottorino Respighi’, Bollettino mensile di vita e cultura
musicale, x (1936), 65–73
C. Clausetti: ‘Ottorino Respighi’, Musica d’oggi, xviii (1936), 153–62
E. Respighi: ‘D’Annunzio, Respighi, e La vergine della città, Scenario, vii/4
(1938), 214–16
D. de’ Paoli: La crisi musicale italiana (Milan, 1939)
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Respighi, Ottorino
M. Rinaldi: ‘Ottorino Respighi, pittore del suono’, All’ombra dell’Augusteo
(Rome, 1944), 39–56
A. Capri: ‘L’arte di Ottorino Respighi’, Musica [Rome], i (1946), 61–5; repr. in La
Scala, no.78 (1956), 11–17 [Eng. summary, p.89 only]
J. Marx: ‘Ottorino Respighi’, Betrachtungen eines romantischen Realisten
(Vienna, 1947), 315–19
C. Guastalla: ‘L’opera di Ottorino Respighi nei ricordi di Claudio Guastalla’,
Ricordiana, new ser., i (1955), 44–7
E. Respighi: ‘L’influence du chant grégorien dans la musique de Respighi’,
SMz, xcvi (1956), 161–2
V. Terenzio: ‘Appunti su Respighi’, RaM, xxvi (1956), 27–32
A. Capri: ‘Lineamenti della personalità di Respighi’, Immagini esotiche nella
musica italiana, Chigiana, xiv (1957), 77–85
M. Labroca: ‘Respighi cordiale e solitario’, L’usignolo di Boboli: cinquant’anni
di vita musicale (Venice, 1959), 67–70
M. la Morgia: ‘Ottorino Respighi 25 anni dopo’, La Scala, no.145 (1961), 29–34
G. Manzoni: Guida all’ascolto della musica sinfonica (Milan, 1967), 357–63
J.C.G. Waterhouse: The Emergence of Modern Italian Music (up to 1940) (diss.,
U. of Oxford, 1968), esp. 552–77
A. Gentilucci: Guida all’ascolto della musica contemporanea (Milan, 1969),
352–6
E. Respighi: Cinquant’anni di vita nella musica (1905–1955) (Padua, 1975,
2/1977)
F. d’Amico: ‘Situazione di Ottorino Respighi (1879–1979)’, Vita italiana:
documenti e informazioni, xxix/8 (1979), 3–15; repr. in Rostirolla (1985),
107–16; Eng. trans. in Italy: Documents and Notes, xxix/9 (1980), 43–54
S. Martinotti: ‘Respighi’, Festa musica pro 1979 (Città di Castello, 1979), 81–7
[programme book]; repr. as ‘Respighi tra modernità ed arcaismo’, Musica
italiana del primo Novecento: Florence 1980, 111–24; repr. in Ottorino
Respighi, ed. G. Rostirolla (Turin and Rome, 1985), 119–31
F. Nicolodi, ed.: Musica italiana del primo Novecento: Florence, 1980, Palazzo
Strozzi, 9 May – 14 June 1980 (Florence, 1980) [exhibition catalogue]
L. Gherardi: ‘Riscoperta del Medio Evo negli studi letterari e ricerca musicale,
tre esiti: Respighi, Pizzetti, Dallapiccola’, Medievalismi e folklore nella
musica italiana del ’900, Chigiana, new ser., xvii (1980), 35–50
M. Modugno: ‘Fortuna e sfortuna di Respighi’, Musica italiana del primo
Novecento, ‘la generazione dell’80’: Florence 1981, 125–34
L. Bragaglia: ‘Ardente vivo’: Elsa Respighi, tre vite in una (Rome, 1983)
F. Nicolodi: Musica e musicisti nel ventennio fascista (Fiesole, 1984)
R. Zanetti: La musica italiana nel novecento (Busto Arsizio, 1985), 208–15,
300–03, 461–7, 793–811
N. Fortune: ‘The Rediscovery of Orfeo’, Claudio Monteverdi: Orfeo, ed. J.
Whenham (Cambridge, 1986), 78–118, esp. 92–5
H. Sachs: Music in Fascist Italy (London, 1987)
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